Welcome to one of the premier WFRP blogs active today! Here you will find snippets from my own WFRP campaign, as well as iAltdorf, the stunning PDF map of the Imperial Capital. Occasionally I will also comment on the state of the game at the hands of Cubicle 7, highlight stunning fan creations and talk about other games.

Adolphus Altdorfer

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Thursday, 31 December 2009

Well, a new year is approaching and I am starting to find time when I'm not working. This means I'm looking forward to another year of gaming, which I have been most fortunate too get done in spades that last couple of years.

This years it's been mostly the latest edition of Dungeons & Dragons, with mixed success from my part but a hell of a ride for the group. We're picking it up again sometime in January, tackling paragon levels and Revenge of the Giants.

I have also played several games of Citadels over the year. It is a brilliant game, quick to learn and with engaging gameplay. Look forward to an in depth review of this game and Fury of Dracula which I picked up yesterday, sometime soon.

Apart from that the big thing waiting to be tried is of course the third edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. We're planning on giving it a whirl in January, and with the arrival of The Adventurer's Toolkit the option of playing a Rat Catcher is once again open ... but the players have said they'd rather play a career that does not give me extra incentives to have sewer based adventuring, so we'll see what they'll go for in The Ongoing and Spectacular Adventures of the Wilhelms.

Saturday, 5 December 2009

I got the box home a few days ago, but haven't had the time to look more closely at it nor its contents. I did an unboxing with photos, but I guess most of you have already seen other pictures of the game. Still, this might give you some more insights into the package and the components included.

The box is big and thick and a bit intimidating:

There's an external slip cover with a "lid" that opens up to reveal more details about what's inside. The lid is help shut by two pieces of velcro:

A shot of the box from the side, the lid open. I'm not sure what I think of the logo. A bit too metallic for my taste:

First edition, second edition and third edition:

The covers of all three editions in plain view. They are all good in their own ways, but I'm a bit sad that third edition didn't do the spiky hair dwarf motive as well:

The slip cover. As you can see, the box itself is wrapped in protective plastic. Which is good, because the slip cover was scuffed and somewhat defaced:

Top lid of the box removed and placed to the side. First thing I noticed was a catalog for FFG's other games:

The four rulebooks and two plastic bags of cards and counters. You also see the cards in different stacks:

Another view of the cards and a glimpse of the extra ten-sided dice. You might notice that everything is resting on some card stock that's inside the box:

The card stock has now been removed, for your viewing pleasure:

Under the compartments of the card stock I found the character sheets, more cards, dice, plastic stands and the three player boxes:

Here are the three player boxes folded and "assembled". The dice are standard size six-sided, shown for scale:

Here you see the box placed in my bookshelf (showing roughly 10% of my gaming collection). It looks really out of place there, so I might rearrange the whole thing, especially when more boxes are aquired:

Wednesday, 2 December 2009

So I went to my FLGS today. They know me there, so all I had to say was "you've got something for me". The reply was "a big box?". Sure thing, WFRPv3 comes in a big box. It feels massive, it is massive. If this had been released way back when, I would have been totally floored by it. I really like the package.

Unboxing it (pictures to come) revealed a box half packed with stuff. Some padding, but after trying to put it all back, the box was crammed. Well, that's life. The pieces and rulebooks and everything looks really neat. Really, really neat. They've avoided some typographical errors that plagued the BI releases, which is nice. They are reusing a lot of art which is ok in my book, but a bit disappointing.

Initial impression is that it looks cool, that it heaves closer to WFB imagery than earlier editions but that it tries to appease the WFRP fans of yore by introducing some familiar themes. One peculiar thing I haven't seen mentioned is that they stuck in a bag of extra ten-sided dice, since they deemed that the original dice didn't measure up quality-wise. A bit odd, and I'm not sure what to think of it. Nice that they put in the extra dice, a bummer that the original set didn't hold up ... it's one of those things that won't bother the fans, but will be forever used as fodder against WFRPv3 by the most vocal of critics.

Tuesday, 1 December 2009

Popped over to my RSS reader, and saw that FFG has announced a new campaign titled The Gathering Storm. Read more about it here. Bound to be interesting and comparisons to The Enemy Within and Paths of the Damned are inevitable. My guess is it'll be better than PotD but not so good as TEW (without SRiK and EiF).

More thoughts on this as more info is revealed. Or when I had a bit of thought about it, whichever comes first.

So WFRPv3 has arrived. At my FLGS at least. Got an email notice just now and I can pick it up tomorrow, if my work schedule allows it. After that I will start posting my impressions, probably in a series of posts, with plenty of pictures. It'll take some time, but I want to give it a fair shake before burning it at the stake ... erm ... extolling its virtues ... or something inbetween, most probably.

Saturday, 28 November 2009

As the winter is approaching, and my working hours are loosing their cloying grip of me, I begin to ponder the future of WFRP once again. The most interesting and terrifying event is of course the release of third edition WFRP. But in its shadow there are many other developments, both alarming and comforting.

Alarming, although no longer news, is of course the closure of Warpstone magazine. John Foody has done a remarkable job at the helm of a publication that I rank as one of the best efforts in the history of roleplaying games. If there were a WFRP Hall of Fame, John Foody should be inducted, only shortly after Graeme Davis, Jim Bambra, Phil Gallagher and James Wallis.

Although John has denied it, I will play the unusual role of conspiracy herald; Warpstone closes at issue 30. The last issue will be published after Fantasy Flight Games published edition 3 of WFRP. Coincidence? John says so, and who am I to contradict a future WFRP Hall of Fame inductee?

After Warpstone, the shining star of fan publications have been Liber Fanatica. I'm not sure what that gang is up to, but I've got some e-mails to send out to find out. Stay tuned! I'm sure they have some splendid news, or maybe apocalyptic tidings, to dole out. All in all it should be interesting.

And the latest news regarding the frolics of the Games Workshop legal department don't bode well for fan sites and said fans' relations with and attitude towards GW and by extension FFG. Grim news of the potential closure of the Dark Reign web site reached me last week, but those fans are rallying and complying with the "Cease and Desist" letter sent from GW legal. I can't be alone in thinking that GW have picked up too much inspiration from their admittedly splendid Judge Dredd RPG from 1985. Maybe a new motto would be pertinent:

"Games Workshop. We are the law!"

Truth be told, I'm not too worried about that. Apparently GW are going after sites that use their own texts and images, and if for example I myself do refrain from cribbing from GW I should be ok. We'll see ... until a C&D explodes in my mailbox, The Altdorf Correspondent is here to stay ... albeit intermittently, I must admit.

Well, you might be thinking about what on Earth I find comforting with the current situation for WFRP.

Well, one comforting thing that has happened is that fans of WFRPv1 and WFRPv2 have now found more common ground than ever before. What seemed like gargantuan issues of rules incompatibilities only a year ago, now seems like trifles that a smattering of house rules will set right, at least when compared to the new enemy: WFRPv3.

And even WFRPv3 makes concessions to the demands of the fan base: apparently the campaign date is set before the Storm of Chaos. Which would have pleased a lot of WFRP players if that had been the case for WFRPv2 as well. I'm happy about it, although to be frank I mostly ignored the SoC in my own writings and my own campaign. I even figured that it could be used creatively and in the spirit of WFRP, something a few fans were adamant in telling me I was wrong about. Well, it seems GW and FFG thought the same thing (that I was wrong) and now WFRP is pre-SoC. Whether SoC ever happened ... or "happens", actually ... is still up for discussion.

"Games Workshop. Retconning For The Greater Good!"

Yeah, well it does pose a little dilemma for me, since my writings so far have factored in SoC ... ah, what the hell. I'll just roll back the whole thing and go with the current timeline. It's not like angry fans of SoC in WFRP are going to storm my front door demanding I stay with the WFRPv2 timeline.

And finally, one comforting thing is the fact that WFRPv3 finally comes out. And it's in a box, which I've been clamouring for for ages and ages. RPG's came in boxes when I was a lad, so that's clearly the best way to publish an RPG! If WFRPv1 had been packaged in a box, I would have loved it even more ... if such a thing is possible.

Color me confused as I delve deeper into this mystery product. It's evidently set in Altdorf, which could be cool, or frustrating, depending on if the designers deigned to use my map as part of their research. If they didn't, well then I'll just have to see what they've done and adjust to that.

EDIT: found the forum and a PDF flier of the Daily Altdorfer giving more background. If this is something akin to Space Hulk, I'll be pleased as punch. Although I get apprehensive to read a lot about Altdorf ...

Friday, 17 July 2009

On the docks of Altdorf, a visitor will hear many strange songs sung by the sailors scrubbing the decks of ships and boats. Listening to these whimsical tales takes you on a journey over the world, and hints of exotic and dangerous locales. No wonder the docks are filled with young boys and girls listening with fascination to verses painting a grim picture of a world they might hope to see themselves, if nowhere else than in their dreams.
One such song is called Xinjiapor, which might or might not be the name of a real harbour close to Cathay. There are many other things mentioned in this song that are mysterious, and I hope to delve deeper into many of the things mentioned here to decipher their meaning.

We sail tonight for XinjiaporWe're all as mad as hatters hereI've fallen for a tawny whoreTook off to the land of bloodDrank with all the Cathay menWalked the sewers of L'AnguilleI danced along a colored windDangled from a rope of sandYou must say goodbye to me

We sail tonight for XinjiaporDon't fall asleep while you're ashoreCross your heart and hope to dieWhen you hear the children cry.Let marrow bone and cleaver chooseWhile making feet for children's shoesThrough the alleyBack from HellWhen you hear that steeple bellYou must say goodbye to me.

Wipe him down with keroseneTill his arms are hard and mean,From now on boy this iron boat's your homeSo heave away boys.

We sail tonight for XinjiaporTake your blankets from the floorWash your mouth out by the doorThe whole town is made of iron oreEvery witness turns to steamThey all become Tilean dreamsFill your pockets up with earthGet yourself a guilder's worthAway boys, away, boys, heave away

The captain is a one-armed dwarfHe's throwing dice along the wharfIn the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is KingSo take this ring

We sail tonight for XinjiaporWe're all as mad as hatters hereI've fallen for a tawny whoreTook off to the land of bloodDrank with all the Cathay menWalked the sewers of L'AnguilleI danced along a colored windDangled from a rope of sandYou must say goodbye to me

Adolphus Altdorfer
Konistag, Nachgeheim 17, 2524 IC

This song is originally called Singapore, and is sung by Tom Waits on his album Rain Dogs. Do get it, it's wonderfully atmospherical. The music of Tom Waits is very WFRP in feel to me, sometimes silly, whimsical and dark as pitch.

I regret that I didn't manage to find a WFRP equvivalent of "hell", so I left that in there. Any suggestions are welcome! It should rhyme with "bell".

Sunday, 5 July 2009

Well, I'm not fond of rumours. In fact, I thought that the the rumours of the impending release of WFRPv3 were a load of hogwash, especially now that FFG has started releasing the WFRPv2 books in PDF format. I was planning a post where I made the case that WFRPv2 was going strong ... well, at least not dying, based on the PDF release news.

Normally, that wouldn't fly with me, but Graham McNeill is a writer for the Black Library, so it makes the source more legit than what is normally the case in these situations. And mr. McNeill will probably get a rather sharply worded e-mail from FFG. Jeez man, that's one way to spill the beans, I guess.

Read the entry. I am not happy with what I'm reading, but I will reserve judgment until I hear more detail from the horse's mouth. It could be that the game described could be just what WFRP needs to break into the mainstream. My adoption will depend largely on if this hypothetical game is compatible with WFRPv2 or not ...

Nah, who am I kidding? If it's got "Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay" on it, I'll play it.

Monday, 22 June 2009

One thing that many of the most outspoken hardcore WFRP fans have in common is a disdain for the classic dungeon crawl, as popularised by the world's most played role-playing game; Dungeons & Dragons. I came to think about this the other day when I was preparing for Tuesday game night, where I'm going to run something called Dungeon Delve for the current edition of D&D. I was also reading some old posts from the FFG forums, and one of them concerned the dungeon crawl as a viable adventure experience for WFRP. Or rather, the non viability of the dungeon crawl in the game.

My stance on topic in relation to WFRP is this:

People should not apply a straight jacket to their creativity. I enjoy playing D&D, and have seen a lot of top notch dungeon crawl products, both from WotC and from third parties using the d20 system. A dungeon crawl is merely a format for an adventure. What an author puts into the crawl determines the quality of the product. The format itself is no guarantee for lack of quality, or the opposite. So it is possible to do a good dungeon crawl, even in WFRP, and for it to have the right tone and content.

But then again, we run dungeon crawls using D&D, not WFRP. Why's that? I hear you ask. If a dungeon crawl is a viable adventure format for WFRP, why not play dungeon crawls in WFRP? I guess it's down to playing to each game's strengths. D&D is best at dungeons crawls, WFRP is best at ... whatever it is I'm doing with it. Right now it seems to be some sort of social intrigue and backstabbing spy novel kinda thing going on.

But I maintain the notion that there is a place for a dungeon crawl in WFRP, even in a city like Altdorf. Or rather, particularly in a city like Altdorf. If the tone is right, if the proper design takes into account the good parts of WFRP, if the NPCs are good, and if the motivation for the expedition and the dungeon itself are good and proper, there is no reason why a dungeon crawl couldn't work.

Sure, write a standard dungeon crawl and it will be horrid for WFRP. But then again, a boring crawl is a boring crawl, be it D&D or WFRP. My benchmark for crawls that I can't work with at all is Tomb of Horrors, an adventure deemed to be one of the best ever by lots of people. I hate it.

And if we look at the adventures available for any edition of WFRP, we find quite a lot of dungeon crawls, good and bad. These are conveniently overlooked and forgotten when talking about the marvelous The Enemy Within campaign (sans Something Rotten in Kislev and Empire in Flames, usually). We also find a strong D&D influences in many adventures, mostly in the Doomstones series (it being an AD&D compatible adventure with the serial numbers filed off from the start), but also the maligned Castle Drachenfels. Not the proudest moments in the history of WFRP, in my opinion.

But the two adventures that have taken the most flack online are of course two WFRPv2 entries; Karak Azgal and Lure of the Lich Lord. Not because they are any worse than the Doomstones series or Castle Drachenfels, but mostly because they defy the common conception of WFRP as a game focused heavily on social interaction, a conception which conveniently leaves out earlier v1 forays into the dungeon.

So WFRP2 is just following in the footsteps of WFRPv1 in the quest of finding out what is good for WFRP; both as a commercial venture and as a game with a distinct personality and compelling adventures. I believe the game is better served with a mix of adventures, or rather a mix of different formats in the adventures, like in the seminal Shadows over Bogenhafen, one of the best adventures for any role-playing game and genre. And there was a dungeon crawl in there.

As Shadows over Bogenhafen shows us, good design is good design, and I think that it would be very possible to create a Ravenloft for WFRP; a dungeon crawl so good it transcends the format, and becomes something even greater. Come to think of it, WFRP is ideally suited to create the most challenging dungeon crawl the world has ever seen. But the question is, who would want to create it, when even the thought of dungeons in WFRP send shivers down quite a few of the fans?

Who would be brave enough to go all out and deliver the ultimate WFRP dungeon crawl? And more importantly, what should such an adventure look like?

Thursday, 18 June 2009

After my last run of WFRP, I've started using a few tricks as a Game Master to try to provide atmosphere at the table. One is to adopt different postures for different NPCs, something I will continue to explore as the campaign picks up after summer.

One thing that especially caught the attention of the players was my portrayal of the halflings. It really brought out the character of the little runts, and made the encounters memorable and fun.

So what did I do? I sat on the floor when portraying halflings. Sound stupid? I don't care, it worked like a charm. We have a low table, so only my head and shoulders were seen by the players, which reinforced the effect of them talking to a halfling.

Monday, 15 June 2009

"My neighbour is a vampire! Will pay handsomely for someone to dispose of him before he sucks my blood! Priests of Morr won't do anything, so you are my only hope! Also, premium paid to those who can remove the rats in the walls."

- Curious note stuck on the Dead Tree at the North Gate.

One of my traits as a Game Master is that I set up situations that never are what they seem to be. Unfortunately, my players have become very skilled in figuring this out, so half the time they are still way ahead of me figuring out who to burn and who to suck up to.

The help wanted ad above could very well concern a real vampire. It could also be a clue into something else entirely, a drug ring, a lone blunderbuss man planning to assassinate the Emperor, or just someone who's afraid of sunlight.

Saturday, 13 June 2009

"Feh, the weather is foul. We haven't had a summer this cold since ... since ever! It's that Storm of Chaos, that's what it is! It's blowing foul winds from the north, filled with ice and death! I swear I saw ice floating down the Reik this morning!"

- Owner of a vegetable stall at the Marktplatz by the Mourner's Bridge, trying to keep warm in the cold drizzle of the coldest summer in 50 years

Saturday, 18 April 2009

And so we come to the first post in the anticipated attempt to present a write-up of what's been going on in my current campaign, set in Altdorf. I've just wrapped up a seven session bout, which The Altdorf Truth probably would describe as filled with "SCANDALS! IMPROPER BEHAVIOUR! VIOLENCE!!! FRATERNISATION WITH CRIMINALS!! MOB WARS!!! HAUNTINGS!!!!! BAD POETRY! RAMPANT DEBAUCHERY!!! BAD PUNS! INSULTS BANDIED ABOUT!!! NIEDERHAFEN PIKE EATS MAN!!!" ... and so on so forth.

Although the campaign lacks a title per se, I've come to think of it as My Altdorf, with the subtitle "With friends like these, who needs enemies?". This perfectly sums up who the PC's most dangerous opponents are; themselves and their near suicidal tendencies to get into trouble.

This seems to be a strong motivating factor when it comes to WFRP. The players want to get into all kinds of messes, many of them not combat related but rather social in nature. They relish blunders, and we have even considered taking away or revising the concept of Fortune Points, so as to make the game more unpredictable. We have a few other house rules that I'll get back to at the opportune moment.

The other day, when driving home from the latest sessions, one player remarked that he felt as if he is now starting to know Altdorf a lot better, and that it is starting to be a more important part of the play experience that the campaign is set in one city. It makes it markedly different from our dungeon delves, and the occasional Call of Cthulhu adventure, where we don't really know anything about the surroundings, and don't really care what happens to them after we've been there.

In this campaign, the players get to know new faces all the time, but they also get to bump into old acquaintances and forge more long-term relationships with the NPCs, for good and for worse. The option of just killing everyone who opposes you doesn't really exist (although it has been tried a few times), and it's equally impossible just to ignore enemies. They're always up to something bad!

And thus endeth the first post of this ongoing series! Stay tuned for more!

Wednesday, 1 April 2009

Wednesday, 25 March 2009

In my running campaign, the PCs are trying to build reputation in Altdorf society. So far this has met with mixed success, but they are adamant in their pursuits of the finer life of the rich and powerful. And they've got some enemies they need to humilate, which always proves a potent motivator for any player at my table.

Anyways, they are supposed to go to a party. I want to kick up the "acting" aspect a bit, but also keep the "gaming" aspect to make sure that the party is influenced by whatever good or bad skill rolls the players make.

Cribbing an idea from Dynasties & Demagogues, the brilliant d20 supplement covering political intrigue, I drew up the following conceptual map of the party. The idea is for the PCs to navigate each square as if it was a dungeon room, with skill rolls, social interaction ... and combat, if things turn nasty. Which there is a good chance of, judging from my players and their agendas.

So, what skill checks goes on in the different squares ... or rooms, if you so will?

Saturday, 7 March 2009

Sunday, 22 February 2009

After a good long while I've done some work on the iAltdorf map and I hereby release version 1.11 of the iAltdorf map. This time, I have mostly added new stuff from various sources, and made some tweakings to the spreadsheet. Explore and give me feedback!

One thing I especially want feedback on is the placement of Reiksport. I'm not entirely happy with my choice, but see it as a logical place for a port to grow up outside of Altdorf, close to the protection of the walls. Comments on that?

This release also has Alexander Bateman, a.k.a Jadrax, to thank for many of the locations. He's supplied me with even more locations, and there are plenty still to be extacted from Shades of Empire, so the next release should not have to wait another year or so!

Saturday, 14 February 2009

A couple of days ago, I got my hands on Shades of Empire. The next day Fantasy Flight Games released a pdf describing six upcoming books for WH40kRP: Dark Heresy. Some good stuff in there with an adventure trilogy and some rulebooks that are bound to pique people's interest. And yesterday I read that the Career Compendium is released and on the shelves of random gaming shops around the world. So things are finally moving along at FFG.

Yet, I still can't shake a feeling of envy towards Dark Heresy. The books released so far are hardback, glorious colour and lavishly illustrated. The WFRP books are softback, black and white and adequately illustrated. I acknowledge that people might be of the opinion that the WFRP books look better than the Dark Heresy books, simply because they enjoy softback, black and white and so on, so forth. But to me, looking at the production values also gives an indication as to where FFG are putting their resources to use, and what line is generating the most interest and in the end, sales.

And it looks to be Dark Heresy. No surprise there, and great news to fans of the game ... which includes me. But WFRP is my game of choice, so I would very much like to see the same level of support for that game. So after two rapid releases, what I'm hoping for now is another pdf from FFG, this time covering the 2009 books for WFRP.

I don't think the books will be hard cover nor full colour, and I don't think we'll get six books. Four seems like a dream, and I'm speculating that we'll be seeing three new releases and some reprints. This will reflect the general interest in WFRP as one of the third tier roleplaying games after first tier Dungeons & Dragons, second tier Vampire and possibly Dark Heresy, and together with third tier contenders such as Exalted, GURPS, Shadowrun and Pathfinder.

What books we will see is still difficult to guess. The latest releases are companion and compendium type books, which I love, but I don't really see them being instrumental in gaining new converts to the game. We need something else.

Sunday, 8 February 2009

Just a short note to say that I have aquired Shades of Empire, the latest official WFRP book, released by Fantasy Flight Games. I've had a quick look through it, read a few chapters and looked for Altdorf locations. And there's a lot of new places mentioned in the book that will need to go onto my iAltdorf map.

I love the format, to me this actually feels more like a second WFRP Companion for WFRPv2 than anything else. And as you know I love the companion format.

It's great to finally have a new official WFRP book in my hands, after a long wait. It was a little bit over a year ago that Black Industries was closed down, and I hope that FFG picks up the pace of publishing after this first entry. I'll get back with a review in due time!